Seeing Red
by SnowieBearSnarl
Summary: Adam Taurus, one of the most feared and highest ranking members of the radical organization; The White Fang. His hatred for humans is second to none and he will stop at nothing to release his hatred on the species that oppressed his own. This was always true, it would always be true... but then, by chance or by destiny, he meets someone who might ruin all of that.
1. Seeing Red

"Here they come." An excited but hushed snicker whispered from the bushes, a young man peered between the leaves, slicking back his crimson, sweat soaked bangs off his mask. He was flanked on both sides by men in the standard White Fang attire, half a dozen total, with another six across the gorge, lying in wait for the signal to strike.

Between the two units of self proclaimed paramilitary freedom fighters designated terrorists by the humans, a caravan approached, bearing the official seal of the Schnee Dust Company on the side of every armored vehicle. They were minimally guarded, as Adam expected.

 _The Schnee filth thought they were clever, hiding this shipment so well. I guess after we slaughtered so many of their guards and broke through security on their trains and boats, they must have figured hiding was better than defending. Well, I'll teach them that nothing they do will keep them safe from us!_

With every meter their target drew closer, Adam felt his blade getting heavier and his hands getting restless. Pent up energy threatened to overwhelm his patience as his heart pounded with anticipation. The seconds crawled by agonizingly slow, but still, the bloodthirsty predator kept himself under control, the promise of imminent bloodshed being enough to quell him until it began. _Almost… almost…_

"Now!" With a shout, Adam rushed from the jungle, sliding down the slope of the gorge on foot, ahead of all of his men, not willing to wait another moment to see action.

He gripped his blade and took his slashing stance while all around him his soldiers followed attacking the caravan from both sides! Their teamwork was impeccable under his orders, all but four attacking the caravan from the sides while the remaining soldiers landed up the road as planned.

 **BOOOM!**

The ground shook as explosives blew out a cascade of boulders from the ravine, the landslide perfectly timed to crush the front car that contained the brunt of the security and cutting off their escape. Now, without the lead, the caravan fell into horrified disarray.

The tires were shot out and drivers fled their vehicles, all the while Adam watched with hungry excitement, watching the pathetic humans scampering away in vain. _Everything is going according to plan_

"Don't let them escape! Take them alive for now, I want to use them to send a message." Despite his moderate disappointment at the fight the humans put up, he was still basking in the glow of victory.

"S-sir I- * _cough_ * something- * _cough_ * is wrong!" One of his soldiers groaned and coughed in a raspy voice, his eyes red and saliva dripping from his mouth while he let the driver run behind him, taking him out with a gun that was hidden under his coat!

"What the hell is happening!?" Rage burned in his voice as he screamed over the clouds of noxious rising smoke, only his potent aura protecting him from its effects. However, even with his acute faunus vision, he couldn't see through the blanket of haze that had isolated him from everything else, his men, the cars, the jungle… everything was gone.

"Damn it! It's a trap! Everyone fall b- Gah!" Before he could finish shouting his command, a powerful impact threw him back, slamming him into the ground!

"Too little, too late, Taurus." A voice dripping with venom hissed from the fog. As Adam staggered to his feet and drew his blade, a glint of steel was all he could see.

"That voice." Reflexively, he raised his blade, catching an otherwise critical strike, sparks flew from the clashing of metal and a familiar, scarred face came into view. "Weiss Schnee…"

A young woman held her face to his, glaring only inches away with bared teeth and righteous fury. Her rapier was grinding against his ninjato with unbelievable force, the force of conviction that called for his blood while all around him he could hear his men fall to the insidious trap.

"You were almost disappointingly easy to trick. Lay down a few breadcrumbs and make you feel like you were clever, that's all it took to bring you here." The heiress' gloating burned him up inside, his anger turned into a rush of strength and with a mighty swing, he threw her back!

"You've been a thorn in my side for years, Schnee. I think it's time to cut you out!" He could feel it, he was outnumbered, the fighting sounds diminished and he was surrounded, he just knew it. His men had lost… _And I'm on my own. Still, the only real threat is the Schnee, I kill her and everyone else will be easy._

"Aaaaaah!" With a belligerent battle cry Weiss rushed him and a flurry of slashes was unleashed, each hitting harder and faster than the last. With his sight hindered and his rage overtaking him, he couldn't counter them all, each successive strike widdling away his Aura.

He was losing ground, she was pushing him back and there was little he could do about it. He attacked, slashing in front of him just to land a hit, even while the bombardment continued. He felt the pain and force of her blitz in his blade, all he had to do was channel his Aura, and his Semblance would do the rest.

"Now… die!" Weiss' barrage didn't let up, even for a second, and his aura broke… just as his sword met her flesh.

The exchange lasted only an instant, but the forces transferred were so immense that both combatants were sent flying out of the cloud of smoke! He heard her body land before his back slammed painfully onto the ground, knocking the air out of his lungs and fracturing at least a few ribs judging by the red hot pain and seared his sides.

"He's escaping! Special Lieutenant Schnee is down! Need immediate medical evac!" One man called desperately from the haze.

"Heh-heh… at least this wasn't a total loss…" Gritting his teeth, Adam forced himself to his feet, every breath sending a wave of nauseating pain through his entire body. _I- I just have to make it… to the river…_

"I won't forget this, humans! I'll be back and I will kill-"

 **BANG!**

Once more, his breath was lost. All he remembered seeing, was an icicle exploding in front of him and then… cold. He staggered forward before he felt his legs give out from underneath him.

Everything went dark. He fell unconscious before he even hit the ground.

Still, outside the darkness, he could hear voices. He couldn't understand them, but as he succumbed to blood loss, a single thought echoed from somewhere deeper than his own consciousness, a hatred that boiled away in his very soul. _I don't want to die… not now. The humans… have to… pay._

* * *

The whole of reality was void, nothingness. No perception or thought could penetrate nothingness that seemed to stretch on for eternity and at the same time, passed in just a moment. Not even hatred could enter the space of nothing, a reprieve from the perpetual and consuming heat that made his blood seethe. Instead, he was at peace, an absence of everything… he was at peace.

Then, after an eternity had passed, after forever came to an end, something stirred in him. A sound in the void, a gentle and far away whisper that called to him, beckoning him from oblivion.

As he rose from the darkness, he found that the sound that pulled him up was a voice, a silvery and warm humming that sang a beautiful song of love and warmth. Without even meaning to, he began to reach out to the voice, longing to bring it closer.

Soon, the song was followed by other sounds, the sound of gentle breaths, of pages turning, of a fan whirring up above. Then, came scent; the scent of a warm home, of spices and flowers, of roses and sugar.

Within moments, pain seeped into his bones and flowed through his blood, though it was only a dull, all encompassing ache. After that, he could feel something soft, underneath him and all around him, blankets draped over his body, bringing his own warmth back to him and keeping him safe from the cold outside the fuzzy cocoon.

Last of all, once all his other senses had returned to him, came his sight. Bleary and unfocused, all he could see was a warm white light. Soon though, his senses became more alert and his vision more acute.

He was in a home, well lit with natural summer light from large windows in the front. There were shelves on the walls packed with books and the entire place was almost pathologically clean with no clutter anywhere. However, as he rolled his head to see more of his environment, he found his arm wrapped haphazardly in bandages, blood staining them from wounds he didn't remember sustaining.

 _What happened to me after I blacked out? Where am I? Where are my men?_ All those thoughts hit is hazy mind at once, but before he could think any further on them, the sound of a page in a book turning stole his attention.

"Are you awake? I was so worried!" A sweet voice made as heavy as lead with concern and compassion spoke up.

"Who are you? Where-" He couldn't even bring himself to finish that thought as his head fell weakly to his other side, bringing into view the source of the voice.

It was a young woman, human, with black hair tinged crimson at their tips. She wore a short red and black dress, but it was her eyes that were most striking. It wasn't just their color, an unusual stunning silver that shined like mirrors, but that her gaze was off, looking blankly into the distance, not at him or anything else of note that he could see.

"My name is Ruby Rose, you're in my home, I found you washed up on the beach when I went for a walk. Oh, I guess you want to know more generally huh? Heh-heh, well, you're on the island of Patch, off the coast of Vale. You're lucky I found you when I did, I um… I tried my best to give some first aid, I think I managed to stop most of the bleeding but the ambulance should be here soon so-"

"Call it off!" He barked, causing the small woman to visibly flinch at his sudden tonal shift.

"B-but, you're hurt and you need help." Her voice shook as she carefully placed her dot filled book on the table next to her.

"Not from you, filthy human!" Bearing his teeth, he prepared his mind for the pain as he began to force himself up, pretty sure he heard his ribs making a sound like snapping a branch as he did so. _Okay, kill this girl, take her Scroll, call back to the White Fang and arrange the nearest chapter to pick me up and arrange treatment. The-_

"Stop!" A heartbreaking and desperate cry stopped him mid movement as Ruby jumped to her feet, her hand reaching out, patting up his arm until her hand found his shoulder and her other hand moved to his back. "You need to rest, you're hurt!"

"Get off me! L-let me go!" As he struggled to get himself up against his captor's gasp, he found himself in the humiliating position of being overpowered by a weak human girl.

"I can hear it in your voice, you're in pain! You have to stop please!" With one final push powered from Ruby, Adam's body gave out and he fell back down painfully to he soft bed underneath him.

"I'm sorry! I wasn't trying to hurt you! I just- I was just trying to help, you smelled really heavily of blood when I brought you in and your breathing didn't sound normal. I can't let you go when you're like this you could die!" The strange and extremely irritating human was begging, her big silver eyes glistened like pools of liquid metal as she pleaded for him to stay.

With one more meek attempt to free himself, he knew he didn't have the strength to fight his way, or even argue as the enticing tug of sleep beckoned him back. _I'd never admit it, but I don't even think I could kill her in the state I'm in. If they bring me to a hospital, the authorities will have me in cuffs within the hour. Maybe it would be smart just to play along until I can get to her Scroll and call for help._

"Fine… I'll stay, but call off that ambulance. I refuse to go to a hospital." Those last words left his lips with a deadly warning growl, his only recourse in lieu of violence.

"But, I can't take care of you here, I don't know how." She frowned, easing up on his shoulders until her weight left his body and she returned to her chair by his bedside.

"I've done field medicine before, I can show you how." Adam sighed, trying his hardest to do something he's never done before; negotiate with a human.

"Um… I suppose I can try my best, but are you sure? I really think you need a hospital." Not even for a moment did her compassionate demeanor change.

"I'm sure, now do we have a deal or not?" His very limited patience was growing thin already.

"I…" She paused, her gaze still fixed on nothing in particular while she mulled over her options before a heavy sigh left her lips. "Fine, it's a deal, but you have to take it easy and if you get worse, I'm taking you to the hospital regardless."

"Fine. Now, leave me be and let me rest." He all but snarled at her as his body weakly relaxed and his eyelids grew heavy.

"Wait! I um, I just have one question." Suddenly, she sounded almost sheepish.

"What is it?" He resigned to her will, having no energy to argue.

"Well, you called me human, does that mean you're a faunus? N-not that there's anything wrong with that! Plenty of my customers are faunus too!" Now Ruby was practically tripping over her own words.

"What are you talking about? Can't you see my horns?!" Now he was getting angry… _What kind of game is she playing?_

"Oh, um… actually, I can't." Ruby giggled, leaning forward towards him with a subtle smile. "Well, it's because I'm blind."


	2. Making The Best of It

"Not like that!" Adam's impatient growls filled the room as he tried to walk his human caretaker through applying the bandages properly.

"Sorry! Hold on, just um… hold up your arm and-"

"Ouch! Damn it human, watch your fingers!" He winced in pain as Ruby's hand hastily retreated from a substantial wound on his upper arm, the laceration leaving the appendage immobilized.

"I can't!" Ruby stomped her foot down in frustration, looking only a few stern words away from tears.

"Right… blind." With a heavy sigh, all the once fearsome terrorist could do was lament his unfortunate and humiliating position. _I just have to play along a little longer, then I can kill this human bitch._

"I'm sorry. Let me try one more time, please." In earnest, Ruby patted the bed that she gave to her guest while he recovered, searching for the roll of bandages she had placed until her fingers found it. "You need clean bandages, since you insisted on not going to the hospital, you have to let me help you."

"Gah! Fine! Just, give me your hand." Giving a bitter exhale of resignation, Adam reached out his good arm, shakily and slowly until it took Ruby's, bandages and all. "I'll hold down at one end, you just wrap it around my arm and do _not_ hurt me again."

"Alright! You can do this Ruby!" She cheered herself on outloud while she felt the spool of bandages unfurl. She focused on her sense of smell, carefully lowering herself to her knees to put her head where she felt his arm level was. The scent of stale blood was strong enough to help guild her and with the memory of where she hurt him cemented solidly in her mind, all she needed to do from there was find his elbow with her free hand.

"Okay, now start wrapping it up, not too tight and not too fast." He couldn't help but brace himself for pain as the young woman began to carefully and slowly wrap him up. After a few laps around his bicep went by without pain, he relaxed, watching his caretaker quickly become much more adept and confident as she dressed his wound.

"Is that enough?" Ruby stopped, one hand holding the spool while her other hand tentatively felt his arm, fingers running down his skin until they met the soft fabric, testing its tightness even though she wasn't sure how tight it was supposed to be.

"Yeah, that's fine. Now hold it there, I'll cut it." Before she could respond, Adam snatched the scissors up from the bed.

"Hey, you don't think I can do it?!" Her cheeks puffed out and her fist came to rest at her hip while she glared towards him.

"You've done enough." Was the most diplomatic thing Adam could think to say without admitting he was afraid of letting scissors wielded by a blind girl anywhere near him in his current state.

"I'll have you know I'm very coordinated." She huffed, feeling the tension in the length of bandage end as it was cut by her new roommate.

"It's done, you can leave now." He spoke through gritted teeth while he ripped a length of tape off with his mouth. _I suppose I should consider myself lucky that she's blind, there's no way she could recognize me. It may be inconvenient at the moment but it makes everything less complicated._

"Right, you need your rest. I'll be back up with snacks soon, if you're asleep I'll leave them on the nightstand for you." Ruby smiled with relief, glad that the ordeal of cleaning and tending to the stranger's wounds was over.

"Actually, could I use your Scroll? I need to make a call." Asking permission for anything from a human instantly felt repulsive, a feeling deep in his chest that gnawed at him with all his spite turned against him. Still, he kept it under control… barely.

"Of course, your family must be worried! Here! Hold on." Without fumbling or searching, she reached into a pocket on her dress and produced a scroll.

"Now you can leave." He growled, snatching the device from her hand. Even so, her warm and kind demeanor never changed. He couldn't be sure if it was because she couldn't see him, but even as hostile as he was, she never seemed afraid.

"Right, heh-heh, personal call, I get it. I have to go get the cookies out of the oven anyway." Ruby gave a nervous giggle before turning around and walking confidently to the doorway. Adam had all but forgotten about the Scroll as he watched her walk, not entire sure what he was watching for; perhaps a stumble or fall? Still, he didn't look away until the blind woman had deftly turned the corner and shut the door softly behind her.

"Cookies?" Adam blinked, sniffing the air and only just noticing the sweet aroma of baked goods permeating the air. "Whatever, I just hope the White Fang can get me out of here, that woman is insufferable."

With a brisk shake of his head he opened the Scroll, his thumb hovering over the call icon, but his dark green eyes were fixed on something else. An icon of a newspaper on the top right corner of the Scroll drew his thumb, and then, with a click, it vibrated then opened.

"Today's headline's." The Scroll spoke in a digital voice, reading off the words on the screen.

"I guess she wouldn't be able to read her screen…" Adam muttered absently at the discovery.

"Search for; Adam Taurus." Speaking loudly and clearly into the mic, he waited for the AI to register his request… but nothing happened.

"Gah! It must use voice recognition." His frustration and anger began to bubble back up while he began to type in the search bar.

"Headlines related to 'Adam Taurus'; Victory for the special Anti Terrorism Task Force of the Atlesian military after Special Lieutenant Weiss Schnee and her team captured or eliminated nearly a dozen high ranking operatives of the White Fang. Among those killed was Adam Taurus, considered to be one of the most radical and actors within the organization. Weiss Schnee was badly wounded in the confrontation but is stable and recovering at an undisclosed military hospital. General Ironwood, in a statement last week commended the actions of-"

 **Click!**

With a push of a button, the Scroll went dark and the room fell into an uneasy silence. For long moments that seemed to stretch on for an hour, Adam Taurus sat there, that cozy guest bed with a cold, unreadable expression staring down at the black screen in his hand.

"Hmph…. so… I'm dead huh?" A dark and terrifyingly pleased grin pulled at his lips while he let the words sink in again. _The Schnee witch may not be dead, but they think I am! This is perfect, and the one person who knows I'm alive is a blind human in the middle of nowhere!_

"Still, I have a lot of questions. How did I get away? The article said that Ironwood released a statement last week, so I've been unconscious for six whole days and ended up with wounds I don't remember sustaining. It doesn't matter, once I get ahold of the White Fang, I can-"

 **Knock-Knock.**

"Ah!" The light but unexpected sound forced the fearsome terrorist to flinch, the spasm of muscles squeezing his cracked ribs, forcing a gasp to escape his lungs and the Scroll to drop.

"Excuse me I- Oh, I'm sorry if I'm interrupting! I heard the Scroll turn off so I thought you were finished. Um, are you okay? You sound like you're in pain?" Ruby opened the door wide with a worried expression and a plate almost overflowing with an assortment of different kinds of cookies.

"Did you try to get up? I told you to call me if you needed anything! You promised you'd take it easy!" The worry was half replaced with compassionate scolding as she made her way back across the room, placing the plate down on the nightstand before feeling her way to the chair she left by the bed.

"I'm fine! Don't touch me!" Even his snarl hurt his chest and sides but rage managed to dull the pain as he swiped at the air in front of her with his good arm. Still, she didn't flinch or back away, only after a few seconds did he remember why.

"Please, you have to take it easy or you won't recover. If you keep putting up a fight about taking care of yourself, I'll call an ambulance to bring you to the hospital!" She had him figured out, the one thing she held over his head to make him listen.

 _It's not even a threat of violence. Ha, I've never heard of someone using helping as a threat before._ Even with how he detested his position, he couldn't help but find that amusing.

"Fine, I'll rest now." He didn't like it… _but I don't have a choice._

"Oh, but you have to eat, felt thin when I got you out of your soaked clothes after pulling you in from the beach. I'm cooking dinner too but I figured you'd want a snack in the meantime." Her smile was almost unbearably sweet.

"Fine, do that and leave me alone." He spat bitterly before slowly and cautiously turning his body so his sore legs hung over the side of the bed.

"Will do! Don't worry, I'm a really good cook!" Ruby beamed like the gem of her namesake before reaching over to the plate of cookies and holding them out in front of her towards the sound of frustrated breathing.

"Just get on with it!" Adam snapped once again, snatching the plate from her.

"It'll be a bit since I'm making a lot, wasn't exactly sure what you'd like so I just made a bit of everything I had. Don't worry, whatever's left over can be leftovers!" Her light and silvery giggle was still completely unfazed by Adam's temperament. Without another word, Ruby left him to his sweets, this time, leaving the door cracked so that the enticing aromas wafting in from the kitchen could fill the room.

 _She may be harmless but that doesn't stop her from being annoying._ Trying his hardest to put her out of his mind, he reached bedside him once more for the Scroll.

 _Wait…_ his hand froze centimeters above the device.

 _If my entire team was captured then that means the White Fang could be comprised. I have the advantage, being a ghost. I don't want to give that away so soon._ With a steady release of breath, he brought his hand back and picked up a cookie and brought it to his lips. _I have to play this smart._

"These are… pretty good."


	3. Teamwork

"Will you slow down?" An aggregated growl followed the odd pair as Ruby pulled Adam by his wrist through the living room. After three days of rest, his Aura has mostly taken care of the worst of things, though his bones were still cracked and he was still weak from his ordeal.

"Heh-heh, oops! Sorry, but I've been wanting to show you this since you got here and now you can finally walk, I guess I got a bit carried away." The bubbly young woman in the frilly, short red dress guided her new roommate towards a door at the end of her home.

"I'm still healing, human." It seemed that his impromptu caretaker found new and creative ways to test his patience each and every day. _The blind leading the crippled… how far I've fallen. It's all the Schnee's fault! I swear, the next time we meet I'll put my blade right through her heart!_

"You know, you keep calling me that, I'm starting to wonder if I should take you to the hospital because you might have brain damage. Come on, prove me wrong and tell me my name." Ruby didn't turn around as she came to a dead stop, still holding him by his write. Still, she didn't need to face him, he could just tell she was smirking behind that head of dark, red tipped hair.

"Grr… don't push it." Despite his most threatening snarl he could summon up, the woman half his size didn't even flinch.

"Hmm, that's no good. You can't even remember my name and I've told you several times. You may have a concussion, I think I should call the-"

"Ruby…" Her name slipped bitterly and quietly under his breath.

"What was that? I couldn't hear you, I'm sorry, could you please say it just one more time so I know you're okay?" She sounded so smug and proud of herself, it infuriated him as much as it impressed him. Very few spoke to him like that, there were those that feared him, those that hated him, and those that respected him. She didn't quite fit.

"Ruby. There, I said it, now can we get this over with?!" No matter how he bellowed, the tiny blind girl never faltered.

"Good, I'm glad your brain isn't broken. Come on, it's just over here!" With a giggle as warm as a summer breeze, she continued, effortlessly navigating her home, avoiding the living room furniture and managing to walk in a fairly straight line towards the door.

"Oh! You should close your eyes!" Once more, she came to a dead stop, her hand hovering centimeters above the handle to the door.

"What? Why?" The girl never stopped pushing and prodding him… _It's like she's trying to test my patience!_

"Because I want you to be surprised, obviously." She shook his wrist in a display of impatient excitement.

"It's not like you'll know if I actually close my eyes or not so why bother asking?" He huffed, shoving one hand in his pocket while he looked up at the door.

"I can hear you blink so don't try to pull one over on me!"

"Oh, so you have super hearing now?" Adam scoffed, an unintentional smirk pulling at his lips before he immediately locked it back down into a casual scowl. "Fine."

"Good, now, follow me." Adam's eyes were closed, but he could hear her silvery voice grow just a little softer before the sound of the knob turning preceded a rush of warm air.

He felt a tug at his wrist usher him forward, a gentle hand urging him to follow. At first, he retracted, he wasn't sure why, he knew he wasn't in danger, but he pulled back before he even realized it. Still, her hand just held his wrist a little tighter and waited for him, not pulling, just holding.

Steeling himself with a hard and defiant exhale, he stepped forward, following her through the threshold of the door.

"Keep them closed and take a deep breath through your nose." Ruby gave her instructions with a dreamy voice, a tone so content and happy he almost opened his eyes out of curiosity… but he didn't.

He didn't speak a word of protest even though one was right on his tongue. Instead, Adam did what she said, knowing he didn't have much choice anyway. So, begrudgingly, he began to take a long, deep breath…

"Flowers…" He muttered absently while he imbibed the sweet scent that saturated the air.

"Yep! You can open your eyes now!" With that excited declaration, Ruby released him, leaving him alone in the darkness, until his eyelids lifted, returning his sight.

Adam stood there, in the middle of a densely stocked and beautifully kept nursery. Flowers and herbs and all manner of plants grew together under the protection of a plastic roof and walls. All as meticulously organized as the inside of Ruby's home.

"Well, what do you think?!" Before him Ruby stood with a beaming smiling shining expectantly at him amidst her flowers.

"You… did all of this?" Adam was all but speechless. He could barely take a single step without his sight… _And yet, this little human woman…_

"Yep!" Ruby puffed out her chest proudly. "Well, most of it, my sister, Dad, and friends came and helped me set it up in the first place, but I've been maintaining it mostly by myself for years. I'm the proud owner of Summer's Grace Nursery and Florist!"

"I see…" His brain was still struggling to process what he was seeing and learning, and all he kept recalling was darkness he was afraid to step into, even with an experienced hand guiding him. _I might not have given this human enough credit, but still, she's just a human_.

"How do you arrange flowers if you can't see?" His mouth was moving quicker than his brain, his expression rapidly devolved from surprise to regret and back to his trademark scowl in just a couple of seconds.

"Actually, It's kinda why my business does so well, people like the novelty. 'A blind florist did the arrangements' they brag but I do my best, as long as it makes people happy. I use texture, scent and shape to figure out what flowers go well together. Obviously, I don't know if they look good, but I haven't gotten any complaints. If I'm being honest though, sometimes I think they wouldn't tell me anyway…" A long and heavy sigh escaped her lungs as her fingers gently played with bright pink petals of a large flower in front of her.

For the first time, he saw her face take on a distant, forlorn expression. She looked lost and for a moment, it's how he imagined he might have looked taking that step with his eyes closed; uneasy and unsure.

"I'm going back inside." It was all he could say, he felt uncomfortable, pulled in two equally uncomfortable directions. So, without another word, he limped back into the house, and closed the door.

"R-right… I guess I should make dinner soon anyway." With a heavy heart, she followed him.

* * *

A small flame burned beneath a cast iron pan and oil bubbled and hissed as Ruby stood over the stove. She hummed a sweet but somehow sad tune while she prodded the still cooking meat with a silicone flipper. Meanwhile, a timer on the oven counted down to its final minutes as the casserole was readying to be done.

Adam watched, being asked to keep the radio off while she cooked, apparently because she could use her hearing to tell when the food was done. He obliged, out of fear that his name may come up on the radio. So all he could do was sit and watch her cook, an oddly fascinating spectacle, he found.

"Hey, you need to walk some more to get better, would mind grabbing me the paprika, it's in a little glass bottle, second shelf left of the oven, middle rack, all the way to the left, in front of the sage." Ruby ordered him around while diligently tending to the other pans on the stove.

"Fine." He was less than thrilled, especially as he winced in pain from merely standing up. With much groaning and complaining that his caretaker seemed completely unempathetic to, he ambled into the kitchen.

"Thanks, food's almost done, just a few more minutes and-"

 **Smash!**

"What happened!? Adam! Adam are you okay?!" Ruby all but went into a panic, her hand nearly missing the temperature dial on the stove before she turned it down and turned her ears towards where she last heard him.

"I'm fine, I just dropped the bottle you asked for." He bared his teeth in anger as he began to bend down to pick up the spice covered glass shards. "Gah!"

"Stop that! You can't be bending over right now, you're still healing!" Ruby snapped at him while taking a cautious step back from where she heard the glass break.

"Oh, and I suppose you've got some trick to find it? Just shut up and let me-" His words came to an abrupt stop and he just stared blankly down at the broken glass while he held his ribs tenderly with one hand. _Why am I acting like this? What concern is it of mine if she hurts herself? Wait, I know, if she gets hurt and has to call on her family for help, they might recognize me. Okay, yes, that makes sense…_

"We're going to have to work together." Ruby put on a fiery expression burning with fierce determination before she turned around and walked confidently to a small closet from which she pulled out a broom with attached dustpan. "Tell me when I'm getting close, I'm counting on you."

"Right, just get on with it, I'm hungry." Adam just shook his head while he walked around the glass towards her, considering kicking it to make a sound Ruby could follow but stopping once he realized that would just spread the glass around.

"Okay, here I go." With a deep breath she summoned her resolve and took a gingerly foot forward, unaware that Adam's free hand was stretched out over the glass to stop her from hurting herself, strictly to protect his identity.

"Okay, warmer… warmer… no, colder, come on! That's the opposite of warmer! Stop going that way and turn around!" His shouts sent waves of pain through his side but he barely noticed them as he tried poorly to help her navigate.

"Hahaha, sorry! You're just fun when you get like that. For reals this time, I promise." Ruby stifled her laughs to focus on the task at hand, despite how fun it was messing with her roommate.

"Warmer. Warmer… just a little bit more, move slowly. There." The search came to an end as the dustpan scraped the glass gently against the floor, the sensation and sound telling Ruby that she had found the spot. Adam helped her position the broom so she didn't sweep the shards all over the floor and then, with only a few sweeps, the mess was safely cleaned.

"Adam! We did it!" She turned her head towards him and her smile sparkled, far outshining the dusk's last light that shone on her from the kitchen window. Such a simple victory hardfought and well won. To him, it looked like the face not so different from those of his men coming back from a fierce battle.

"They don't look terrible." Once again, words just slipped out, but this time, he didn't retract from them them. Ruby's confused look somehow compelled him to finish even when he never even intended to speak about it.

"Your flowers, the arrangements I saw, I've seen worse." He looked as hard and unhappy as ever, however, although Ruby couldn't see it and he didn't know it, his eyes grew a little bit softer. So too, did his voice, something Ruby picked up on instantly.

"I'm glad… thanks, for being honest with me"

"Get back to cooking before you burn the house down." With that cold response, Adam turned around and made his way back to the couch, where he would finish watching her from a distance, without her knowing.

"Right! Back to work!"


End file.
